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Cortney's Reviews > Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
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by
""But [no one] can tell us what it means to a child to leave his often hellish home and go to a school -his hope for a transcendent future-that is literally falling apart."- Jonathan Kozol
If I could choose one book to give to people who seem to be oblivious to the ways in which racial inequalities are often put into place from a very, very early age, it would be this one. I'm often dumbfounded when I encounter someone who honestly believes that every has the same opportunities in life in America, and that "anyone can make it if they work hard enough". They seem to truly believe that we all being life on the exact same "START" line, with the same resources afforded to each one of us. This is sadly not true at all. This book is an excellent example of how public schools consistently fail the poorest children, who are also often minority children. Yes, it was written in 1991. However, in 1991, I was 8. So the children Kozol writes about are a bit older and a bit younger than me. This is *my* generation, feeling the lasting effects of these inequalities- and no, savage is not an overstatement.
The descriptions of the conditions under which these schools are asked to function and educate are atrocious. Passages about children meeting in bathrooms for reading classes, or senior students sharing 8th grade history texbooks that are 20 years outdated, are just the tip of the iceberg. The conditions that Kozol documented, in which children were expected to learn, and teachers were expected to teach despite the depravity, enraged me. I have done some preliminary follow up research on this subject, and many schools are still in such conditions today. It is a disgusting fact in a nation as rich as ours, and it is an entrenched inequality that is enshrined in our laws, and the ways in which the American system finances education. Reading some of the court cases made me see red. I came across quotes from parents saying that "money doesn't matter" in education, yet turning around and fighting tooth and nail against a more equitable distribution. If money "doesn't matter", the obvious question is- why won't you let *your* child go to school in a windowless skating rink turned elementary school, with two bathrooms for 1,300 students? Or attend a school where 11 classes are crowded into the falling down gymnasium? Or try and learn when there are 15 textbooks for a class of 30+ students? Or do science experiments in classrooms with no running water?
To even try and say "money doesn't matter" with a straight face to a school that is falling down around its students is a peculiar type of cruelty.
If I could choose one book to give to people who seem to be oblivious to the ways in which racial inequalities are often put into place from a very, very early age, it would be this one. I'm often dumbfounded when I encounter someone who honestly believes that every has the same opportunities in life in America, and that "anyone can make it if they work hard enough". They seem to truly believe that we all being life on the exact same "START" line, with the same resources afforded to each one of us. This is sadly not true at all. This book is an excellent example of how public schools consistently fail the poorest children, who are also often minority children. Yes, it was written in 1991. However, in 1991, I was 8. So the children Kozol writes about are a bit older and a bit younger than me. This is *my* generation, feeling the lasting effects of these inequalities- and no, savage is not an overstatement.
The descriptions of the conditions under which these schools are asked to function and educate are atrocious. Passages about children meeting in bathrooms for reading classes, or senior students sharing 8th grade history texbooks that are 20 years outdated, are just the tip of the iceberg. The conditions that Kozol documented, in which children were expected to learn, and teachers were expected to teach despite the depravity, enraged me. I have done some preliminary follow up research on this subject, and many schools are still in such conditions today. It is a disgusting fact in a nation as rich as ours, and it is an entrenched inequality that is enshrined in our laws, and the ways in which the American system finances education. Reading some of the court cases made me see red. I came across quotes from parents saying that "money doesn't matter" in education, yet turning around and fighting tooth and nail against a more equitable distribution. If money "doesn't matter", the obvious question is- why won't you let *your* child go to school in a windowless skating rink turned elementary school, with two bathrooms for 1,300 students? Or attend a school where 11 classes are crowded into the falling down gymnasium? Or try and learn when there are 15 textbooks for a class of 30+ students? Or do science experiments in classrooms with no running water?
To even try and say "money doesn't matter" with a straight face to a school that is falling down around its students is a peculiar type of cruelty.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
June 2, 2011
–
Finished Reading
June 3, 2011
– Shelved
